The energy industry has proposed changes to the way farmers are paid for producing renewable energy, with the ‘feed-in tariff’ due to come in next April.

Under the proposals, farmers will be paid for all the renewable energy they generate including what is used on farm. Plus, as well as saving the cost of buying in energy, they may also be paid extra for renewable energy they export to the National Grid – a win-win situation.

Under the new system the net payment farmers receive for a kWh of energy produced may be as much as 36.5p compared with the current 4.5p, depending on the technology used.

BPEX Environment Projects Manager Charles Baines said: “The factsheets provide the key practical and financial information for each technology, including the expected time period for payback.

View the sheets here:

-wind turbines
-solar heat and electricity
-heat pumps (ground and air)
-biomass (woodchip and pellets)